DOVER Del.

Police arrested an 18-year-old man in the shooting of two students at Delaware State University, authorities said Monday. As they led him into a courthouse, he told reporters: “I’m sorry.”

Loyer D. Braden, arrested about 3:30 a.m. in his dorm room, was charged with attempted murder, assault and reckless endangerment, as well as a gun charge, according to court documents.

A justice of the peace set bail for the East Orange, N.J., teenager at $75,000 and ordered him to stay away from the victims and Delaware State. Braden is a freshman at Delaware State, according to a man at Braden’s home in East Orange who identified himself only as a family member.

University offficials, who had assured the campus community over the weekend that the gunman was not on campus, could not explain how or when Braden returned to his dorm room.

“I’m not clear on that matter,” Delaware State University Police Chief James Overton said. “I can’t get into that.”

Four Dover police officers escorted Braden to the court Monday afternoon with his hands cuffed and his legs shackled.

In response to reporters’ questions, he said softly: “I’m sorry.” Asked what he was sorry for, he replied only: “She’s in the hospital.”

One of the wounded students, Shalita Middleton, 17, was being treated for abdominal wounds at Christiana Hospital in Newark, Del. University spokesman Carlos Holmes said Middleton had not been questioned and “will not be questioned until we get clearance from the physicians.”

The siege mentality and accompanying publicity heightened the tension and confusion on campus. There were conflicting reports about whether the victims or witnesses were cooperating with campus police. Dover Mayor Beverly Williams told a local newspaper that she was informed that witnesses were reluctant to cooperate with police and placed the blame on a no-snitching mentality among some of the students and their parents.

However, the other wounded student has been talking with police, officials said, but that student’s mother said the 17-year-old freshman didn’t know who the gunman was or what triggered the shooting at the Village Cafe, a campus dining hall that stays open until 3 a.m.